Angel Island, U.S. Immigration Station

Angel Island, about one square mile in San Francisco Bay southeast of Tiburon, is a hilly island rising roughly 800 feet, with about five miles of shoreline. Juan Manuel de Ayala anchored there in 1775 while charting the bay and gave it its Spanish name. It later became a Mexican cattle ranch, was designated a military reserve in 1850, and was developed from the early 1860s as Camp Reynolds and other garrisons. The military presence lasted about a century and included coastal batteries, a World War II prisoner of war camp and missile sites. Quarantine and immigration stations also operated there. Surviving structures include officers' quarters, a hospital, residences at the quarantine station and a brick Quartermaster's Storehouse of about 1908, described as probably the finest building on the island. At least six sites are associated with Native American cultures. The federal government returned the island to California in 1954 for use as a park.